


good surprises.

by enbymickey



Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: M/M, Post Season 10, domestic ian and mickey being domestic, franny is there and she's cute, grumpy ian, heart eyes ian, ian has a surprise for mickey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-08
Updated: 2020-09-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:21:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26352586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enbymickey/pseuds/enbymickey
Summary: Ian understands why Mickey hates surprises. Why he’s clearly anxious but he wants to show Mickey that not every single surprise will end with a broken nose and a black eye. There are good surprises. Look at them, their marriage. Happy, safe and stable after years of being just the opposite. They’re proof of good surprises.
Relationships: Ian Gallagher/Mickey Milkovich
Comments: 6
Kudos: 215





	good surprises.

**Author's Note:**

> happy birthday shelby, i hope your day is filled with as much happiness as they bring to us every day plus how much happiness they bring to each other. i love you, soilmate. enjoy.

Ian watches the kitchen sink drip water into the used bowl below it from his seat at the kitchen counter.

The washing machine going next to him and the air conditioner makes it’s usual groans but that’s quiet for this house and that’s only because no one else is home. It’s somehow just him. A rarity these days. Always been a rarity, actually. Ian can’t remember a single time growing up it was just him in the house and as he got older, he spent too much time running from himself or something else to be alone, scared to be trapped with his thoughts.   
  
He doesn’t mind it so much now, he got some laundry done and dinner ready for the night so the kids can help themselves later. He packed up a cooler full of beer and food for Mickey and him tonight. He was productive, not distracted by the silence at all. Ian has always worked better in chaos but it’s nice to know he’s not too bad with calmness either. 

He’s getting impatient though because he has a surprise for Mickey. 

Hand running across his newly buzzed hair, almost forgetting that Mickey cut his hair on the back porch for him last night. Lip, Carl and Sandy joined them at some point. The neighbors yelling at them for laughing too loudly in the middle of the night even though car engines, gun fire and dogs barking were probably louder than they were. 

**_It’s summer, it’s too hot for hair._ ** Especially with this beard he’s taken the time to grow. Finally able to grow something that’s not patchy. Mickey seems to like it, he doesn’t have to bother with shaving, and franny laughs every time she runs her fingers across it. It’s a win for everyone.

He can feel the anticipation building up in his chest. It’s like a buzzing sound in his ears. Wait that’s just the washing machine timer going off. 

The idea for tonight popped into his head when at a call today. Okay, maybe he was stitching up the teenagers leg that got cut from jumping the beat up, old fence after sneaking into the place. But, the fucking kid was an idiot. 

Blunt fingernails tap against the counter. Ian has always considered himself a pretty patient guy. He always has been with kids. He was with his school work and taking the time to learn new things, not always getting it on the first try but at the time he had the confidence to know he would get it soon enough. He’s patient at work. Always patient with his patients.  **_( Ha, Patient Patients )_ **

Patient with Mickey. When Mickey’s stressed about something or too anxious to order his own food. On the bad days where everything from the past seems to hit him all at once. When Mickey can’t read something and Ian gently reads it for him. When he is in bed with Mickey and they just want to fuck slowly, move together and be together because they have the time for patience now. 

But there’s other times Ian isn’t patient at all. And, it always has to do with Mickey too. When they were growing up, just wanting to be with Mickey and not understanding at the time why they just couldn’t be. Older now and he gets it. He so gets it, he hates himself for not allowing himself to be patient for Mickey then. They’re patient in bed together but they’re also unpatient as fuck. Rushing to just be together, close and connected. To just get off because sometimes the sex is still just about getting off. Not most of the time but sometimes. It’s not his fault his husband is hot as fuck. 

So when it comes to Mickey, he’s either patient or he’s not so patient. Right now he’s not so patient.

Ian starts messing with his ring, something he’s picked up doing when his hands have been idle for too long. When he’s anxious. When he starts to miss Mickey. Which is kind of pathetic of him considering how long they’ve been apart before. He saw him this morning. He brought him lunch at work. He shouldn’t miss him like this but he does. His chest doesn’t ache the same way it used to when he missed him when they were apart because now he knows he’ll be home eventually but he can’t deny that he doesn’t get a little upset about it. 

He’s ripped from his thoughts when the front door slams open and Carl comes running in, look of concern on his face and Ian immediately panics.  **_Who the fuck is dead now?_ **

“Franny fell on the concrete. Hit her head. Won’t stop screaming. Mickey’s freaking out, dude.” 

Ian’s eyes go wide, standing up and long legs making long strides to the door and it’s open quickly, making a  **_wsh_ ** sound in his ears. 

Screaming from his young niece is the next sound he hears. Liam looks like he’s trying to calm her and Mickey is standing there still, almost frozen like. 

Fuck.

Worried uncle and EMT instincts both kick in and he’s over to her in an instant. There’s no blood. Between the way Carl came running in the house and the screaming Ian was expecting a blood bath. 

Jesus, no one ever cared like this when they were kids. He broke his collarbone, Lip broke his foot and Carl broke multiple bones and it was never this dramatic. 

Ian bends down, hands expecting her head for any injuries that he might’ve missed at first glance but there’s nothing there. It was probably just scary. He gets that. He smiles at his niece and gives her a gentle kiss on her head. 

“Hey, little lady. Can you look at me for a minute.” When she does he looks at her eyes, holding up his finger and asking her to follow it. Doesn’t look like there’s any signs of a concussion either. She was just being dramatic. It runs in the family.

“You’re okay. There’s no blood. Does it still hurt?” He asks calmly, gentle and steady. In the back of his mind he knows that Mickey is still standing there behind him, frozen and he hopes he can make sure this little girl is okay quick so he can make sure his husband is okay too. 

She shakes her head, her little hand patting the top of her head then looking at it and when there’s no blood just like Ian said she smiles so wide that Ian can’t help but smile right back at her. “You fixed it Uncle Ian!” 

Before Ian has the chance to tell her that he really didn’t do anything because there was nothing wrong in the first place, just probably an instinct reaction to falling she’s off Liam’s lap and has her arms wrapped around Ian’s neck in a hug then in a flash, she’s running up the front steps. 

Liam shrugs in his direction,  _ that kid really has a good head on his shoulders _ . Carl just lets out a sigh like he was kind of expecting more and follows his younger brother into the house. He knows Carl cares about franny, the only reason he had that reaction is because she’s okay. 

Knees crack when he stands like he’s fifty years old instead of his early twenties. He turns and he can finally get a good look at Mickey. He looks terrified. 

“She tripped over my foot.” Ian’s face softens even more so at the confession. He knows how big of a heart Mickey has, how much he loves that girl and the rest of their family. He knows that Mickey is going to worry about her for the rest of the night. He knows that there is no way he’s getting Mickey out of this house now. 

“Mick,” Ian’s hand, slow and careful to not scare him, presses against his jaw. His thumb rubbing against the slight stubble there. “She never watches where she’s going and she’s fine. It wasn’t your fault.”

Mickey nods, eyes closed and leaning into Ian’s hand. That’s a good sign. He doesn’t say anything but that’s okay, he doesn’t have to. 

They stand there, two gay married men in the middle of the street in south side chagico just holding each other and offering comfort. He had no idea this would be his life but he’s glad that it is. 

They go inside after a few minutes, Mickey refuses to leave Franny’s side until bedtime so the surprise is postponed but it’s okay because watching cartoons with his husband and niece really isn’t the worst way to spend the evening. 

\-- 

He works a double the next day then sleeps the day after that while Mickey works nights at the mechanic shop with Lip trying to finish a bike for a regular so they don’t really see each other much.

Ian wakes up especially grumpy two days after what was supposed to be the surprise, there’s probably some correlation there but he’ll ignore it.

He slams his foot against the door frame after he climbs over a sleeping Mickey to get to the shower. He yelps, grabbing onto his foot and slams his palm against the wall. Mickey doesn’t stir. Ian guesses that’s better than waking up in a panic at any sound. But still, the petty part of him wishes he would’ve woken up. 

The water is colder than expected when he steps in, stinging his abnormally warm, at least according to Mickey, skin. The plan to relax and let go of his frustrations taken from him and now rushing to get out of the stream. 

No less than five minutes later he is out and downstairs, stepping on something sticky when he reaches the bottom of the stairs. A groan of disgust and exhaustion, his anger only building and it really doesn’t help when he makes it to the kitchen and there’s no more coffee left. Not even some left in the container. 

Holding up the pot of what used to be filled with coffee he sighs, “ **_Jesus_ ** , fucking really?” The empty pot shoved back into it’s place. He just stands there for a minute, glaring at his older brother who doesn’t even live here anymore but has a cup of coffee. 

“Sorry man, took the last of it.” Yeah, Ian can fucking tell. 

“Thanks.” Is all Ian says before he turns, opening the fridge to see there’s no milk left either. Lip probably took that too. He grabs a box of cereal from top of the fridge and shoving his hand down, grabbing a handful of colorful pieces and shoving them in his mouth,  **_this fucking day already_ ** .

“What’s up your ass?” Lip asks, getting up from the table and putting his dish in the sink. Which he will have to clean up later because Lip doesn’t fucking live here anymore. The faucet is still leaking too, that annoying  **_drip drip drip_ ** into the skink. 

“Don’t you have your own place. With your own coffee. And milk.” He asks, shoving another handful of cereal into his mouth. 

“Fred and Tami are still sleeping, thought I’d come over and hang out.” Ian almost softens at that, almost lets whatever made him so angry and grumpy this morning go and loosen up. That doesn’t last long because then Debbie’s yelling about something upstairs and Carl slams what he can only imagine is the bathroom door. 

Mickey’s most likely awake now. He would’ve been fine if he woke up because of him but Mickey shouldn’t get woken up by his fucking annoying family. He imagines if this was a cartoon that smoke would be coming out of his ears at this point. 

His anger is actually making him itchy. It’s building and suffocating and he doesn’t even know  **_why_ ** he’s so angry. But, he usually doesn’t. 

A couple more handfuls of dry cereal and that should be fine. He should be able to take his meds without sitting on the toilet for the next hour. His head is starting to pound from lack of caffeine and he knows Mickey is going to want some too. 

Debbie comes down the stairs now, asking about where the fuck her shoes are and Ian doesn’t know but he wishes she would find them just so she would shut up. She’s going on and on about the day bar crawl that she and her friends had planned.

“Debs.” He sighs, she doesn’t hear him. Of course she doesn’t.

He looks at Lip, trying to control his breathing. “The faucet is leaking again.” 

“I’ll look at it. You sure you’re okay, man?” Lip asks as Ian moves around him, accidentally shoving into his shoulder but whatever, Ian is sure he doesn’t  _ not _ deserve that. He fills a cup with water, grabbing his meds from where he keeps them in the kitchen and takes them. 

He knows what Lip is asking and it makes swallowing the pills even harder. 

Before he gets the chance to answer with anything besides the growing glare, Mickey’s coming downstairs and Ian feels a little bit calmer.  **_Mickey’s here._ **

“Morning.” He mumbles, his hand squeezing Ian’s shoulder while passing by him in the kitchen. He has about the same reaction to the empty coffee pot as Ian did.

Ian gives him the most apologetic look he can muster up while as angry as he does. 

The box of fruit loops is thrown on top of the fridge again and he walks into the living room. 

“What’s his problem?” Ian hates the way Mickey asks his brother instead of him.

“Dunno man.” 

“Maybe you should fuck him. Make him nice again or whatever.” Debbie says then cheers when she finds her shoes, slamming the door. Of course leaving her kid with them. 

Jesus christ he just wants this day to be over. ****

Mickey walks in with the same box of cereal, sits next to him and their legs are touching. It’s calming. Relaxing. Safe. He doesn’t ask what’s wrong and doesn’t ask him about his meds. He just turns on the tv and eats his cereal. 

“Debs says I need to fuck you.” He offers Ian some cereal with a raised brow, meaning he’s not exactly opposed to it. 

“Yeah.” He smirks, hand dropping into the box once again. “Maybe after you get that penile enhancement.” 

Mickey laughs. His beautiful, free laugh and almost chokes on his cereal and  **_okay, maybe today isn’t bad after all._ **

He knows he should talk. He knows that communication is important and he wants to, he wants to share everything with Mickey but when you spend your whole life bottling everything up it’s so hard to just let it out. He lets out a deep breath, messing with the cereal 

“Woke up this morning feeling like - like my skin was on fuckin’ fire, Mick. Don’t know why but i was just so angry.”

Mickey doesn’t say anything just listens to him. That’s more than enough, that’s what he needs. His hand drops to his knee, thumb rubbing against his gray sweatpants covered knee and Ian feels like he could cry. He’s being listened to and it shouldn’t come to such a surprise because Mickey has always listened to him, even when he didn’t realize it. 

“Just wanted to fucking rip Lip’s head off for no reason.” A small part of him hopes Lip, who is still in the kitchen and fixing the sink now, can hear him. 

“There’s always a reason to rip your brothers head off, man.” And Ian knows he’s not serious. If this was years ago he would’ve worried that he was but they’ve been hanging out more, even when Ian isn’t around and working together. Ian’s happy that his husband and his brother have become so close, become friends but sometimes watching them makes him miss Mandy and he knows it’s unfair. She’s gone and she’s happy. At least he hopes that she is. 

He’s silent for a minute, just looking at Mickey with pure admiration and love. He loves this man. This man is his husband. 

“You wanna get out of here?” He pauses realizing that Debbie just left without franny and Lip will have to go soon. Carl isn’t exactly trust worthy of watching Franny by himself. Not because he doesn’t love her but he’s worried that Carl will just forget and leave her here by herself. He’s watched it happen. “Tonight?” 

Ian can tell that Mickey’s curious about where the hell they would go just by the way he raises his eyebrows but there’s also gentleness in his eyes and happiness. Mickey deserves to be happy after everything he’s been through. 

“It’s a surprise, don’t ask.” He mumbles, laying down on the couch and pulling a grumbling Mickey down with him so they can take a nap because being angry without reason, or even with reason, takes a lot out of him. 

  
  


\--- 

Mickey’s cooking dinner and Ian’s standing behind him, arms wrapped around him just being completely unhelpful and asking him stupid questions like  _ what’s that _ ,  _ what are you doing now, are you sure you want to put that much in.  _ He’s being annoying just to be annoying and he should see the elbow that hits him in the ribs coming but it still gets a yelp out of him and he bites down on Mickey’s shoulder to get him back. They both laugh though even if Mickey tells him to fuck off more than once. 

Debbie comes in the door, laughing her asses off. It makes Ian a little aggravated. The rest of the day went by smoothly, they laid on the couch until Franny woke up and they fed her. Ian chased her around and used Mickey as a jungle gym until they settled down to watch some cartoons and eventually fell back asleep on the couch until she woke up to play. It was a good day but Ian didn’t volunteer and Debbie didn’t even ask. 

“Your daughter is upstairs.” Ian says, clearly pissed off again and it’s not like he would have a problem with watching her if she was out working but clearly she wasn’t. It was their one day that he and Mickey both had off and he wanted to just spend time with his husband. 

They need to move out. 

“Thanks for watching her.” Debbie says, grabbing an apple from the counter - that was Ian’s - and heads upstairs, Sandy sticking her middle finger up at Mickey then following behind her. 

“Fucking Gallaghers.” Mickey mumbles under his breath, turning off the stove and looking at Ian. 

“Wanna get out of here?” Ian echos his question from earlier. Eager to get out of here and to just be with Mickey.

“Just fuckin’ finished this, Ian.” Clearly offended and gesturing to the delicious smelling spaghetti. Ian’s stomach grumbled and he sighed, grabbing some tupperware from the cabinet below and mismatching tops. He spooned some sauce out, more than enough for the two of them and did the same with the noodles. He put the top on both, grabbed some bread and two forks. There, done. 

Mickey doesn’t say anything but he either looks like he’s gonna call him an idiot or a genius. 

“Alright, Einstein let's go.” Ian will take that as a win. 

He grabs his backpack from the floor beside the door and shoves the spaghetti filled tupperware in along with the two six packs in the fridge. 

Mickey smirks. He’s on board. 

They walk the streets not hand in hand but close enough that their hands are almost touching. Mickey clearly stressed about having no idea where they were going and it’s understandable, his entire life has been nothing but bad surprises. Nothing but bad thrown at him and not knowing what to expect while still knowing exactly what to expect. 

Ian understands why Mickey hates surprises. Why he’s clearly anxious but he wants to show Mickey that not every single surprise will end with a broken nose and a black eye. There are good surprises. Look at them, their marriage. Happy, safe and stable after years of being just the opposite. They’re proof of good surprises.

“I’m gonna show you a ruined surprise.” Is the only response he gets and Ian’s not exactly sure what that means. 

They finally make it to the place and Mickey asks him if he’s planning on killing him. Ian only laughs as he climbs over the fence. 

“I’m too fuckin’ old to be doin’ this.” Mickey complains as he climbs over the fence after Ian. 

“Yeah well old men like to have fun too, Mick.” He pulls out two beers from the bag, opening one and handing it to his husband. 

“You are the expert on that.” Ian rolls his eyes, too happy to be here to get actually upset by the comment.

“Is this a fucking mini golf course?” 

“No. It’s an abandoned mini golf course.” Ian replies with a goofy smirk. 

He can barely see Mickey with how dark it is and how far away it is but he’s sure he’s getting the biggest disappointed look. 

“Fuckin’ hate you.” Mickey burps out, the beer halfway gone now and he grabs the bag, getting his food and fork out. 

“Love you too, Mick.” It feels so nice to say that even if the words do leave his mouth at least once a day. He’s dreamed about freely saying it since he was fifteen years old, sixteen and seventeen when they hid themselves away from the world in abandoned buildings and the back of stores because they had to. But they don’t have to now, they can sneak into some place because they want to get away from how much the world knows about them now. So it can be the two of them without anyone else. They’re not hiding or seeking minutes of freedom but instead they’re finding a way to get some privacy. 

As husbands. 

Mickey waves him off but now he knows that Mickey actually does love him too. He doesn’t have to chase or wonder. He knows and he’s known since they were kids.

They’re sitting at one of the holes, a flashlight making light for them while shoveling forks of spaghetti into their mouths and drinking beer. 

“How did you find this place? Sneaking out at night to search abandoned mini golf courses?” Mickey asks with his mouth full. God, Ian loves him so much.

“Yeah, Mick. Every night I sneak out of bed and I wander around town looking for the best abandoned mini golf course.” He grabs another beer from the bag, this will probably be his last because he’s already starting to feel it. 

“Knew it, bitch.” Another bite of spaghetti, stealing Ian’s beer because his gone and he doesn’t feel like reaching over and getting another. 

Ian glares at him but grabs another beer for himself since Mickey’s taking the whole  _ what’s mine is yours  _ part of marriage seriously. 

“Some dumbass kid cut his leg on the fence on the other side of the course.” 

“Some kid cut his leg and your first thought was  _ yeah let me bring my husband here _ ? _ ” _ Mickey asks like it’s crazy and like all of his thoughts aren’t somehow connected to him. 

“It wasn’t my first thought, my first thought was that I should probably make sure the kid doesn’t bleed out. It was my second thought.” 

They laugh together and finish eating while Mickey tells him about the bikes he’s working on and how he wants to get one. Ian, who has been on the scene of way too many motorcycle accidents, is immediately worried and wants to tell him fuck no but the image of Mickey on a motorcycle briefly flashes through his head and maybe if he gets him a good helmet they could make it work.

Ian just has to kiss him so he does, he slides his hand up Mickey’s entire body and rests it against his neck while he just kisses him. Just keeps kissing him, the noises that Mickey lets out against his lips drive him crazy, as always. Maybe they fuck on the golf course. 

Okay. They fuck on the golf course. 

\-- 

Mickey’s swinging the putt putt stick, missing the faded blue ball every single time and it makes Ian laugh. 

“Mick, the goal is to hit the thing.” Barely heard through the deep belly laughter.

“Gonna fuckin’ hit it.” Kicking the ball with his boot and it makes it into the hole. 

Ian just laughs harder as Mickey smirks. 

“One point, bitch.” 

“That doesn’t count! You kicked it!” 

“Where’s the rules for mini golf?” 

“I don’t fucking know but I’m sure kicking is against them.”

“Okay Mr. Rule Follower. Show me how it’s fuckin’ done.” 

Mickey holds out the stick for Ian but Ian doesn’t take it, instead he steps behind him and presses a kiss to his shoulder. He stands there for a moment, not moving and not saying anything just breathing in the smell of Mickey and Mickey leans back, his head resting on his shoulder.

It’s really fucking gay.

“Relax your shoulders.” When Mickey does it Ian smiles then kicks his feet apart with his own, Mickey grumbling but doing it anyway. 

“It’s easy.” Words gentle as he finishes angling mickey’s body then slowly brings their arms back then forward but completely missing the ball.

Ian’s makes a confused face and now it’s Mickey’s turn to full on laugh. 

“Look at you fucking go, putt putt master.”

Ian sighs, shaking his head and removes his arms from around Mickey’s midsection. He moves Mickey with his hip and Mickey just laughs, moving out of his way with his hands up. 

“Jesus, pushy.” 

Mickey grabs another beer and stands off to the side while Ian fixes his posture and swings, hitting the ball and it going directly into the hole. 

“Fuck yeah!” 

“I got it in first.” 

“No you fucking didn’t. You kicked it!”

“It’s in the hole!” 

“Because you kicked it!”

Ian is planning on bickering back and forth for another ten minutes but then Mickey’s lips are against his. 

“Shut the fuck up.”

And he does, god whatever the fuck Mickey wants he’ll do as long as he keeps kissing him and spending the day with him watching their niece then sneaking off with him at night just because they can. 

As long as he gets to spend forever with Mickey Milkovich, he’ll do whatever. 

Except shutting up never lasts long but that’s okay because Mickey will always shut him up with a kiss. 

**Author's Note:**

> hope this was good !!! i hope everyone is doing good !!! once again, happy happy birthday shelby and i don't know what i'd do without you. 
> 
> twitter: ianlovebot  
> tumbr: sandymilkovich


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